Silicon CMOS technology has been the mainstay of microelectronics for decades past. However, Moore's Law will at some point require extension based on non-silicon device technology. While microelectronic devices have long been fabricated in materials other than silicon, such as group III-V semiconductors, MOS technologies in these medium are considered immature from a high volume manufacturing (HVM) standpoint.
Another problem with contemporary group III-V technologies stems from the lack of reasonably well matched n-type and p-type devices because although group III-V material systems have high electron mobility, hole mobility is much lower. As such, a transition from advanced silicon CMOS to group III-V devices may entail a significant disruption to circuit design which has to-date co-evolved with silicon-based devices and come to rely on the availability of complementary transistors for CMOS logic.
Device architectures and fabrication techniques capable of implementing CMOS with group III-V-based microelectronic devices offer the advantage of extending Moore's law for decades more.